Poplar trash season seems to be never ending here. Seeds, than it’s the flower or bud covers, than the flower petals and parts. As soon as it gets hot and dry they start shedding leaves and that continues all the way to fall leaf drop. Almost forgot about the aphid honeydew pizz all summer. Any abandoned car under a poplar will turn black.
Once upon a time we milled a lot of cottonwood. Guy had a whole woods full of it and we had an order we could fill with it. It always stunk around the mill but we cut and milled day after day until the spring mud came. If one is extremely careful stacking it to keep away from warping it is okay but still not the best. I remember one guy came and ordered maybe a thousand board feet he wanted for horse fencing. Sadly I never learned how it turned out.
Quick hijack to Brad’s thread. We had torrential rains today and it knocked a couple tulip poplar blooms to the ground. Here are the tree’s namesake flowers:
My neighbor planted a couple cottonwoods years ago, this time of year the air is full of "cotton" drifting around. They're not native around here, and I wish he'd never planted them. That's my rant for today...
I’ve processed cords of tulip poplar, I like it for shoulder season. I imagine my shorter growing season makes then slightly higher BTU heck lilacs are just blooming here
Cool to see them up close. I just checked the twin TP next to our place. Yup they are budding too. Really have to crane my neck to see as they are very tall.
I'm working on a bunch of cottonwood currently. Stringy stinky stuff, but has seasoned fast in the past. I have one customer EVERY year asking for cottonwood for campfires. Says he'll be back in about 3 months for a full truckload of it. The growth rings are impressive.
I split some green cottonwood about a month ago and tossed it in a pile (NOT stacked). It's literally dry now. YMMV.
